Welcome

Broadly, I am in interested in basic personality structures and processes (e.g., temperament, self-beliefs/schemata, goals, etc.), how to measure them, and how to understand their contributions to personality functioning and to such clinical syndromes as depression.

Developing New Approaches to Assessing Personality and Conceptualizing Clinical Cases. My most recent interest, and one I expect will most occupy my attention in the next several years, is in applying advances in social cognitive theory to personality assessment and case conceptualization (see Scott & Cervone, 2016). How does one best measure temperament, self-schemata, and goals/aspirations? How does one do this so that it is sensitive to how personality is expressed, namely in a manner that shows little cross-situational consistency but high stability in particular types of situations (i.e., if-then personality signatures)?

Understanding Cognitive Self-Regulation and Depression. I am also interested in how individual differences in goal representations, values, and self-efficacy beliefs/outcome expectations contribute to depressive experiences, as well as in how depressive experiences can influence these personality structures and processes (see Cervone et al., 1994; Lindsay et al., 2005; Scott & Cervone, 2002).

Understanding Role of Cognitive Self-regulation in the Depressive Experiences of American Indian Youth. Before leaving the University of Wyoming to begin a new position at Washington State University, I had been engaged in research with American Indian youth on a reservation in Wyoming. We sought to understand how values, goals, self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs, and cultural identification contributed to depressive experiences. This work led to the development of a Living Your Vision intervention to both reduce risk for depression and to promote resiliency (see Scott & Dearing, 2012; Scott Tyser et al., 2014; Mousseau et al., 2014).